Microbial profile of weaning foods, infant milk and drinking water in infant feeding bottles at pediatric hospital and nursery in Cairo

ABSTRACT

The microbiological profile of 280 weaning food, infant milk and drinking water samples in infant feeding bottles, belonging to infants up to 18 months approximately, brought to either the outpatient clinic of Abo El-Reash pediatrics hospital of Cairo University or a private nursery located in Cairo was assessed by collecting feeding samples prepared at home following interview with some mothers as much as possible. Bacterial contamination was found in all of 280 samples of weaning food, infant milk and drinking water with higher load in the samples collected from the pediatrics hospital more than those collected from the private nursery. Mean microbial counts of aerobic bacteria, coliforms, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus and yeast and mould in this study were similar to those reported in weaning food, infant milk and drinking water in other developing countries, and were over internationally recommended safe levels. Most of the samples had microbial load greater than the Egyptian government limited number. The incidence percentages of microbial counts were higher in the samples belonging to low income families more than those of moderate or high income families. Many factors like unsafe water, mishandling of feed or bottle, storage of food at ambient temperature for a long time, poor personal hygiene and domestic sanitation may have contributed for the gross contamination of the samples in this study, especially by enteropathogens. This calls for educating the human society on the relationship between contamination of weaning food, infant milk and drinking water and diarrhoeal diseases. The government and nongovernment organizations should play a role seriously to treatment the problem of children food contamination in view of the fact that WHO offers technical assistance in this field to any member government